Blue Bloods quietly celebrated its 250th episode.
Blue Bloods Season 12 Episode 16 didn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary. Eddie and Danny worked on typical cases, Frank struggled with guilt, and Erin and Anthony had yet another argument over something stupid and insensitive that Erin said.
But maybe that was the best celebration for a series about a police commissioner who is dedicated to integrity and his hard-working family.
In many ways, the 250th episode was similar to the 249 that came before it, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Blue Bloods has a winning formula, blending police procedural stories with family dinners and conflicts between siblings. That’s what people love about the series, so it wouldn’t make sense to deviate too far from it for a celebration.
A good portion of the hour was devoted to Frank and his team’s guilt over Reddick’s getting shot, and that was as it should have been.
As Reddick said, Frank is the type who genuinely wants to help people, and this story was the ideal way to showcase that for the 250th episode.
Some of Frank’s conversations with Reddick were hard to follow.
I was confused about why he kept telling her to remember who she was. I guess it was code for tapping into her inner strength, but it seemed like a strange thing to say, especially when she was being rushed into surgery.
After Frank talked to Jamie, Reddick’s story started to make sense. She had made up the need for brain scans so that she could stay in the hospital longer.
In reality, that wouldn’t work. Insurance wouldn’t cover someone using a hospital as a means of hiding from the world when there was no medical need for them to remain hospitalized.
Of course, Reddick had a need — it was just that her issue was a mental health problem. And Frank being Frank, he was determined to find a way to solve that problem.
Jamie: This isn’t on you.
Frank: It always is. I’m the police commissioner.
Jamie: This isn’t a conscription army. Every one of us knew what we were signing up for when we put on the uniform.
Frank and the whole team felt responsible for Reddick’s injuries because they didn’t welcome her to 1PP, and Frank sent her out into the field, but Jamie was right: no one is forced to wear a uniform, and those that do choose to take the risk that comes with it.
I thought Frank’s comment that Jamie would make a good PC someday was among the most interesting in an already compelling scene. I predict that Jamie will step into the PC position if Blue Bloods ever comes to an end.
Hopefully, if that ever happens, it’ll be more compelling than Anthony and Erin’s latest fight.
These two are constantly butting heads about something. In this case, Anthony was right — Erin’s reaction to him possibly being promoted to Chief Inspector was selfish.
Anthony was caught between wanting the job and being scared to take it. But It seemed like the whole reason he told Erin about it was that he wanted her to push him to move forward.
And she did, but not in the way he expected.
Anthony: I thought you’d be the one to talk me into taking the job.
Erin: Of course you should take it if you want to. But I can’t help thinking about who’s behind this.
Anthony: What do you mean? Charlie Petersen wouldn’t offer it to me if he didn’t –
Erin: Not him. I mean who’s behind him, pulling the strings.
Anthony: What, Crawford?
Erin: Yes, Crawford. We both know that she’d do anything to get at me.
Anthony: You’re unbelievable. I tell you life changing news and all you can come up with is a Crawford conspiracy.
Instead of a pep talk, he got the insulting suggestion that the only reason he would ever be considered for such a job is that Crawford had ulterior motives.
I wish Erin hadn’t turned out to be right about that. The idea that Anthony’s boss would take an early retirement just for the sake of offering Anthony a job that limited his access to Erin was laughable.
But even if Erin’s intuition was 100 percent correct, the way she approached it was all wrong. She rained on Anthony’s parade, and that wasn’t cool.
Anthony’s argument with Charlie was confusing, too.
Charlie was treating him like a subordinate, getting angry that Anthony wasn’t paying attention in a meeting, and more so that Anthony wanted to ditch his paperwork system.
Either Anthony is the new boss, or he isn’t. And if he is, then Charlie has to live with whatever decisions he makes, even if he doesn’t like them.
These scenes made it seem more like Anthony was promoted to working under Charlie rather than taking Charlie’s job.
As for Reddick, I was disappointed that she didn’t take the second chance to work for 1PP even though I understood her decision.
I liked her the first time around and thought Frank’s decision not to keep her on was silly.
So what if she challenged the status quo? Frank does that regularly. And Garrett and Sid don’t always get along, so her and Sid’s butting heads shouldn’t matter either.
Reddick’s second go-around with the dream team might have been compelling, but it made sense that she wanted to conquer her fear of being out in the field again first.
On the other hand, the team invited her without Frank’s knowledge, and she may have realized that despite him coming in at the perfect moment.
Finally, Danny and Eddie’s case was notable mainly because these two don’t usually work together.
After learning that Eddie was the responding officer on the previous incident, Danny could have gone off on her for not preventing the murder. It was refreshing for these two to work together instead of butting heads or being at cross purposes.
This case was one of the goofiest ones on record, though. The neighbors acted like little kids that Eddie and her partner had to parent in the first place. And the solution to the mystery was ridiculous.
No one killed Mitchell, and it seemed silly to charge Jonathan with the attempted murder of someone who was already dead.
At the most, he desecrated a corpse, even if he didn’t realize that’s what it was at the time.
Your turn, Blue Blood fanatics. Did this milestone episode provide enough of a celebration for you?
Hit the big, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and let us know! And if you missed the episode, watch Blue Bloods online and then come back to let us know what you thought.
Blue Bloods airs on CBS on Fridays at 10 PM EST/PST.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on Twitter.